Spotlight

It is officially my favorite time of year- Oscar season. The nominations were officially announced by the Academy earlier this week. Over all, I am less drawn to the nominations this year than I was last year. Nearly every 2015 Best Picture nomination blew me away. As a self-proclaimed movie buff, however, it is still my mission to see as many nominations as possible. Last night, I saw the highly-praised Boston-based film, Spotlight. This film, directed by Tom McCarthy, starred Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams, told the story of how the Boston Globe uncovered widespread child molestation within the Catholic Church. The story was based off of true events that occurred in 2001. I was five years old at the time, and had little recollection of this. I was amazed at how McCarthy was able to capture the methods of journalism and how it can be used to uncover a major scandal. There was so much information to fit into a film, and I can understand how daunting of a task this could be for a filmmaker. However, the brilliant strategy behind Spotlight was to focus primarily on the journalism. In short, the film depicts a group of journalists, the "spotlight" journalists, who are in charge of and dedicated to working on a confidential project for an extended period of time. These journalists spent months uncovering the reality of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in Boston.

The reality of sexual abuse is an exceptionally challenging concept to portray respectfully on-screen. This was done very gracefully in Spotlight and the actors demonstrated that the journalists involved were doing their jobs, not trying to be heroes. It was clear that the reveal of truth was necessary for justice. The scale of the coverup of this scandal by the Catholic church was unbelievable. For decades, the church got away with abuse. People's lives were forever changed for the worse. The film was effectively able to demonstrate just how widespread and impactful this exceptionally well-hidden scandal was. This phenomenon of child abuse within the Catholic church went on undetected for decades, while the investigative reporting was ongoing for years. It would be hard to capture every detail of this in one film, which is why I believe Spotlight was so successful. It focused entirely on the journalism aspect. Victims as well as priests were interviewed by the spotlight journalists, which gave the viewer a unique look into the scandal. Everything that is uncovered is seen through the eyes of journalists. It takes a lot of talent to portray real people in a film, but the acting in Spotlight was exceptionally done.  Although the subject matter of this movie is intense, I think it is an important film to see. The viewer will be exposed to a moving storyline, impressive performances, and carefully done artistic decisions. This was one of the best films I've seen this year, and would gladly go see it again.